For Want of Acceptance
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Hell Kaiser Ryo just wanted people to know the truth about him – that he was a person who had made his own choices. But even with acceptance there were complications. Ryo/Fubuki.


Notes – For the gx_100. Set after season two, just when the students were leaving for the summer holidays.

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The Genex Tournament had been more painful than anyone had cared to admit.

But it had not been painful for Hell Kaiser Ryo, a current star of the Pro League, as far as anyone knew. He'd made it very clear as he dropped the final medal Manjoume would need to become the champion at the feet of Rei Saotome that the whole event had meant nothing to him.

That was a lie though.

It had meant something to him, just not something that the others were aware of…

Hell Kaiser was a person – an individual who could make choices about how he lived his life. That seemed like a simple enough concept to grasp, and yet people struggled with it.

He could understand why, if he was feeling in the mood to justify their views, because he had gone through such a drastic change in such a short space of time. The original Kaiser may have been a weak person who put too much value in respecting others but many saw him as a friend. When that person became Hell Kaiser, who cared only for victory and thought respect was meaningless, they'd struggled to accept that change.

So what had those he'd once been close to done?

They had come to the conclusion that another being was controlling Ryo, and the changes had not been of his own choice. This was not so farfetched, seeing as how his former friends had spent so long fighting the Hikari no Kessha – an organisation that depended on mind control, but it angered him greatly.

He'd used the tournament to confront those he'd been closest too, his best friend Fubuki and his brother Shou, to show them that the change had come from within Ryo himself, not some darkness that was controlling him. Refusing Rei's challenge had been the last thing he needed to do there, to show to her that he had changed too much and it was her turn to also change and move on from her former feelings for him as well.

She hadn't been the only one who'd had prior feelings for Ryo crushed by the change either, but he felt as if Fubuki had now accepted that Ryo was not the same person he'd known and had moved on.

Everyone knew the truth about Ryo Marufuji now, but for some reason leaving the tournament had still left a bitter sting.

He reasoned with himself that they caused the drain on him. That he was reflecting their feelings of sorrow at discovering the truth and soon he would get over it. They would too.

The tournament had also marked the end of the academia's educational year and they would all have the summer to reflect on it if they needed to.

Upon returning to the abode he was staying in during his run in the Pro Leagues he took to the sofa with a heavy sigh. This was a temporary apartment for him, and not the first one that year either. He'd left home not long after his graduation and had since been staying in houses that were closer to the Pro Leagues and were affordable. For this he was quite thankful, because after his match against Shou he doubted he'd have been able to face his brother over the summer if he'd continued to live at home. Some distance was good.

But distance wasn't something the world wanted to give Ryo at the moment because he heard a phone ring softly.

It took a few moments for him to register that it wasn't the house phone, the tone was much too muffled, and it couldn't have been his current mobile phone because he was carrying that with him.

Locating the source of the sound he found the ringing from another mobile he'd kept in a cabinet, discarded. It was a phone he'd used while Duel Academia and was full of numbers he'd never expected to hear from again. In truth he didn't know why he hadn't thrown it away yet with all the moving around he did, but there it was ringing – it's screen glowing a shade of blue and reflecting the name of the caller on the surface.

Pressing the button to answer he didn't talk at all, waiting angrily for the person on the other end to begin their business.

"Ryo?" came the surprised voice of Fubuki, who had probably been considering hanging up just before Ryo had answered, "Are you there?"

"Yes," Ryo answered tonelessly, letting the use of his birth name slide since this was Fubuki.

"That's good," the boy said quietly, before carrying on, "Look, I know that I'm probably the last person you want to talk to right now…"

"iOne of/i the last people," said Ryo, thinking he should keep his former best friend on the right track.

"Yeah. Well… fine. But I want to speak to you anyway," Fubuki answered, with a resolve that would not be stopped by petty insults.

Ryo answered him, "You don't want to talk to me. You want to talk to a friend you had last year. A friend who has grown up and changed, and who is not being controlled by anything except his own choices."

"…I've accepted this," said Fubuki, and his voice wasn't as cracked as Ryo had been expecting it to be, "I know now that you are Hell Kaiser Ryo because you want to be, not because anyone else is making you that way."

"And yet you still want to talk with me?" challenged Ryo.

"Of course I do," answered Fubuki, "Because you're a person I once cared about and I've come to see that I have to accept your choices, even the ones I disagree with. And I hope that… that if I get to know you for a second time around you might become someone that I care about once more."

A pause as Ryo took this in. Though Fubuki was use to pauses from Ryo by now and didn't complain.

After a moment Ryo responded, iHell Kaiser/i responded, "I'm not as easy to be friends with as I once was. If you want a chance I'll give you one now that you've accepted the fact that I am indeed Ryo, but don't expect this to be simple and be prepared for hurt."

Regardless of how serious this was, Fubuki laughed.

"I'm more than prepared for hurt Ryo, I'm looking forward to it."

That had been the last thing Ryo was expecting him to say. But there was Fubuki, ready to be his best friend even after the fact that his best friend had become a different person had sunk in.

And so he considered, perhaps a bit of hurt was something both of them could benefit from.


End file.
